Salt was an incredible rabbit who created an everlasting, loving impact on everyone he met in his long 13 years of life. Salt was adopted from the Great Lakes Rabbit Sanctuary in Willis, MI on a cold January night in 2013. Our other rabbit at the time, Bella, came with me to choose her new mate. She ignored every single rabbit she met except Salt, who chased her around with wonder.
Salt and Bella were instant mates who spent many happy afternoons grooming each other in a sunbeam with good music in the background. He was always happy to stay by her side and was generally sweet, but shy about pets from humans. For the majority of his younger years, he could be observed as sweet, skittish, curious, and highly intelligent. Although he seemingly didn’t want too much social interaction in the physical way, he was always concocting stealthy missions to sneak around the door gate to get into rooms where he wasn’t allowed. Bella was the bait in case there was reprimand, as Salt observed the situation from afar. As both bunnies slid into middle age, it became apparent that Salt wasn’t just sending Bella to spy on us for naughty reasons, but rather to see if they could just sneak into the same room as us and lounge by the tv while getting snuggles. Although we loved seeing how our little MacGyver’s brain worked, this was our sign to remove the door gates and allow our bunnies to roam the house completely cage free and have the same freedoms as their humans. Their happiness in freedom manifested over the years as two pairs of ears happily bouncing into the room when they heard you arrive home, more room for expressive zoomies, and endless expressions of love.
After Bella passed away in 2020, we chose to not adopt a second rabbit and we saw Salt come out of his shell. His golden years were full from letting his guard down and spent his time in between naps giving and receiving never-ending cuddles. There were times where you could spend a straight 30 minutes cuddling him and he’d still look up at you as if you had only just arrived. Because he needed the extra attention, we began changing our schedules to wake up earlier for extra snuggle time, just to ensure he knew we loved every moment spent with him. He started to figure out how he could manipulate us into receiving extra treats in the morning, just because we cooed and awed over his hilarious communication of leading us to the treat table, looking over his shoulder, and ensuring we knew he wanted a snack already before breakfast.
Salt certainly got extra treats because he lived beyond his breed’s 5-8 year life expectancy and we knew he deserved the world. When you allow pets to thrive and grow to their full potential, you in turn get to live your full potential and grow more vulnerable together. There are not enough words to describe our soul rabbits and the honor felt from sharing life together with them and they will alway be a significant part of how we love, breathe, and identify ourselves. One of our last, yet strongest memories with Salt was one evening when we were listening to The Lion King soundtrack. The soundtrack starts with “The Circle of Life” and we watched our tired old man get up from his loafed out position, stand up, and puff out his chest with pride. He showed us his joy to be part of the animal kingdom, but more importantly, reminded us that he will always be the king of our home.